The Urban Repository Archive (URA) is a project by Seher Naveed and Veera Rustomji, both faculty members and alumni of the Fine Art Department at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. It was initiated by a grant from Art South Asia Project.
The URA is dedicated to the exploration and documentation of Karachi through the lens of student work from the Fine Art Department at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. The archive aims to capture the complex and multifaceted nature of Karachi as an inextricable aspect of life for its residents. The city presents numerous challenges, including neglected spaces, political instability, militarisation of public areas, alterations to urban commons, and the impact of climate change. These pervasive forces influence the art school and students’ work as they navigate and respond to the city’s intricate realities through their artistic expressions. The connection to Karachi is also deeply embedded into the practices of both current and former faculty members, such as Seema Nusrat, Haider Ali Naqvi, Seher Naveed, Dr. Asma Mundrawala, Arsalan Nasir, Veera Rustomji, Fazal Rizvi, Sophia Balagamwala, Naiza Khan, Adeela Suleman, and David Alesworth, among others. These faculty members have long integrated Karachi into their artistic practices, which in turn informs their teaching. This ethos is reflected throughout the department’s curriculum, shaping the design and direction of courses, and forms the foundation for this section of the archive.
This archive is a collaborative project that showcases documentation of methodologies, pedagogies, and fieldwork, reflecting the art school’s dynamic engagement with the city’s complex identity. The current iteration of the archive is structured around three core components: Themes, Urban Craft, and Projects, each designed to provide a comprehensive exploration of the ways in which Karachi’s multifaceted realities shape artistic practice and expression. Currently the URA website archives over 120 thesis projects and has presented these resources in various forums across South Asia.
The homepage showcases five key themes around which student projects are organised: Intersections / Systems Control / Inward City / Peripheries / Environs. This approach transforms the archive into more than just a collection of materials; it becomes a space for engaging with diverse narratives—both old and new—that reflect the complex realities of life in Karachi. By securing these student-led projects, the themes prompt critical discussion about their relevance and the continued influence of the city’s challenges on artistic expression.
Urban Craft showcases the diverse range of crafts and materials explored by students, combining traditional forms with new materials sourced from Karachi’s vibrant markets. Many students draw inspiration for their artwork from their fieldwork in and around the peripheral regions the city, particularly through visits to bazaars and markets. These interactions often lead them to engage with Karachi’s cultural and material landscape. Selected projects currently include; documentation of Mahigeer fisherfolk women stitching flags for boats at the city’s harbour, as well as a deep-dive into the paper recycling markets of Karachi, examining print history and archives. These projects have been developed by current and former students of the Fine Art Department as collaborations which have been integrated into the URA’s website to save and expand a deeper understanding of craft and it’s hybrid nature.
The Projects section is dedicated to both long-term and short-term coursework, focusing on initiatives between faculty, students, and alumni. Sustaining interest in the parallels between teaching practices and student’s work across their fours years at the art school, this section archives art projects built upon site-specific research before they begin their thesis year. At the Department of Fine Art, students are encouraged to curate their work by building upon first-hand document, accessing public libraries and institutional collections and referencing existing and imaginary maps of Karachi, so that their work reflects collective and authentic concerns. Having a dedicated space for this type of work on the URA website, shows the resources available in Karachi and how students need them to create contemporary art practises. Currently, as part of our multi-tiered project titled Machi Qaida, the URA is creating a visual directory of coastal resources for publics, researchers and students, who are increasingly cordoned off from the Arabian Sea.
The Department of Fine Art at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
The Department of Fine Art offers a comprehensive program designed to enhance students’ artistic growth across three disciplines: 2D, 3D, and Multimedia. This integrated approach combines studio practice, theoretical studies, and personal/professional development, fostering intellectual and aesthetic responses within a global framework. The department acknowledges the diverse social, political, cultural, economic, and technological contexts that influence contemporary art, encouraging students to incorporate this multidimensionality into their work. The department has been led by renowned academics, including Noorjehan Bilgrami, Naiza Khan, Asma Mundrawala, Usman Ghouri, Rashid Arshad, and Adeela Suleman, whose artist research has significantly contributed to the department’s evolution.
URA Co-Directors
Co-Directors
Veera Rustomji is a multidisciplinary artist from Karachi. Her practice deals with uncovering historiographical power structures portrayed through materials which explore geographical influences, religious iconography and archival methods. She holds a BFA from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) and an MA from Chelsea College of Arts at the University of the Arts London (UAL), where she was awarded the UAL Postgraduate International Scholarship. Veera produced a body of documentation capturing the erasure of island life and coastal heritage within the Indus Delta for the Mead Fellowship and her site- specific investigations coexist alongside literary and community-based archives from public and private collections. Veera is co-director of the Urban Repository Archive (URA), where she oversees internship programs, documentation of research and back-end website management.
Seher Naveed,a Karachi-based artist with over a decade of experience in visual arts and academia, explores the socio-political development of urban environments and its impact on daily life. Her work delves into architecture as a reflection of societal aspirations, especially in cities grappling with political instability. Seher earned a BFA from the Indus Valley School of Art Architecture (IVS), Karachi and an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London (UAL). Currently, she is Associate Professor at the Indus Valley School of Art Architecture, where she teaches courses in drawing and painting. She is co-director of the Urban Repository Archive where she manages archiving data, layout and design and outreach. She also serves on the editorial board of Hybrid—a transdisciplinary research journal at IVS.
Archive / Documentation Development
In August 2024, the URA team reached out to 114 fine art graduates from 2013 to 2023, selecting them based on their thesis projects that examined urbanism in both direct and indirect ways. So far, 120 graduates have been archived, sharing documentation of their thesis projects and research. Almost all the content received from alumni has been documented by the graduates themselves, resulting in a wide range of submissions.
What we found particularly interesting is the evolution of technology in our collection of archives. Recent graduates have managed to produce high-quality documentation using just smartphones, whereas earlier graduates often relied on more complex equipment like DSLR cameras or low quality cell phone cameras. The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture is indeed a ‘young’ art school, established in 1989 and within just 35 graduating batches, we can observe significant contrasts in student work. This not only highlights advancements in technologies but also reveals the evolving approaches to documenting art over the years.
Website Design
The URA homepage uses drawing as a point of convergence, incorporating motifs derived from various student projects featured in the archive. The use of colour and pattern suggests both continuity and adaptation, paralleling the complex, urban landscape of Karachi, where growth and transformation occur in parallel, often shaping and sometimes disrupting or negating one another. The motifs used in the drawing reflect themes such as distance, hierarchies, order, and disorder, concepts central to the archive’s exploration of the city’s complexities. The composition deliberately questions the linear organisation of traditional archives, disrupting conventional methods of categorisation to mirror the multifaceted and often chaotic realities of Karachi. This non-linear approach is intended to engage viewers in rethinking how archives are structured and invite them to experience the city’s vibrant and ever-changing nature through a more fluid, interconnected lens. The imagery in the drawing is sourced from the thesis projects of Aswad Anees (2021), Axel Lucas (2022), Alizeh Ghaffar (2021), Adan Shaikh (2022), Hamda Imran (2023), Mashaal Khan (2021), and Lujane Pagganwala (2019).